Find the best credit card offers online.Typically credit card issuers offer attractive credit card balance transfer deals, wherein cardholders can transfer their credit card balance to another bank for a small fee. What’s good about these types of deals is that they normally carry low interest rates, with some banks even offering zero interest grace periods. These programs are targeted towards individuals who find interest fees of an existing issuer to be exorbitant and are actively seeking some form of relief. Balance transfers are also clever programs employed by credit card companies to “steal” or “poach” customers from rivals.
Lately however, credit card companies have been jacking up their credit card balance transfer fees and cutting down grace periods. This prompted industry experts to advice consumers today to not delay transferring balances if they intend to do so, since there is a strong likelihood that fees may further increase.
Traditionally, credit card companies charge cardholders around 3% for balance transfer fees. Recent months however have shown many credit card issuers such as Chase Freedom and Discover More hike fees by up to 5%. Experts view this phenomenon as another move by banks to increase profitability at the expense of consumers. Beginning 2009, more and more banks have started to remove caps on amounts that can be applied transfer fees. Previously cardholders were made to pay fees of no more than 3% for transfers ranging from $75 to $100. Today, many banks have raised fees to 4% to 5% regardless of the amount.
Experts recommend individuals to examine closely credit card offers first before considering getting a balance transfer. Many companies put out catchy ads that promise attractive rates but hide important details in fine print. Some offers boast of long grace periods but in reality are only applicable to those who have excellent credit histories.
For example, Citi Platinum Select MasterCard offers a 0% balance transfer fees to users for up to 12 months. However, a closer look into the details would tell you that their offer is good only for those who meet the bank’s criteria on credit scores. Additional provisions also reveal that the 0% offer is applicable only for the first seven months, and that the succeeding months would cost cardholders 20%. The bank also does not specifically say what their standard criteria are for credit scores and so you would have no way to find out in advance if you qualify for their 0% offer.
Some banks on the other hand allow applicants to transfer their balance while they are completing their online application without informing them if their credit scores qualify them for their low to zero balance transfer programs.
For people considering balance transfers, it is highly recommended to examine first the details of a balance transfer offer to know what the real provisions are since many companies today resort to sugar-coating their advertisements to lure more customers.
